


Patience

by AislingKaye



Series: Light Of My Soul [11]
Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dwalin's just a softy, M/M, Obliviousness, Ori can be devious, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 07:16:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AislingKaye/pseuds/AislingKaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ori wants to meet his soulmate, but he wants to be with Dwalin.</p><p>Why can't he have both? (And honestly, has anyone NOT seen this coming?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patience

**Patience**

 

He wasn’t sure exactly how old he was when he finally understood what the little light in the centre of his palm signified, but he knew that for a very long time he longed to meet his soulmate. His brothers both had white soul lights too, and they were much older than him, but he didn’t give up like Nori seemed to. Dori was hard to read, even for Ori – who was often able to just sit back and observe others due to his shy and quiet nature – but he seemed to be unbothered by the fact his soul light was still white.

Ori didn’t want to give up. He wanted that connection – that one person who would be his perfect match. He wanted to find the person who wouldn’t care that he preferred writing over fighting, or that he liked to knit.

Then came his chance. His chance to travel and meet new people and maybe (hopefully) find the one who would make his soul light change colour. He begged and pleaded his brothers to let him join them, and resisted the urge to cheer when they finally relented.

It was worth it. Despite the long trip to the Shire and having about four other dwarves fall on top of him, it was worth it to meet the ones he would be travelling with until Erebor was reclaimed. There was Kíli and Fíli, who were only a few years older than Ori, and their uncle Thorin (who arrived late and was rather intimidating. Well, until his soul light turned green upon touching the hobbit’s wrists). Then there was Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, all of whom were kind to Ori without seeming patronising. Glóin and Óin were somewhat amusing and a little intimidating, but seemed like kind enough fellows. And then there was Balin, whom Ori knew from his visits to Dori over the years, and his younger brother Dwalin.

Dwalin, tall and tattooed and bristling with weapons. Who didn’t look at Ori with disdain when he saw the young dwarf knitting. Who didn’t sneer at Ori’s slingshot and who was willing to talk to him when the younger dwarf asked him a question.

Now Ori wasn’t sure if he wanted to find his soulmate. Not if it was someone other than Dwalin. He still longed to meet the one who would complete him, of course, but he wanted _Dwalin_ to be that person.

He was falling in love with the warrior, even if he wasn’t his soulmate. Dwalin protected him, put up with him, and didn’t treat him like a burden. In fact, Ori would even go so far as to say the older dwarf was fond of him – if he dared to say so, that is.

So Ori kept mostly to himself and observed the rest of the company, watching from the sidelines as Nori found his soulmate and seeing the lights change from green to blue for Nori and Bofur, as well as Bilbo and Thorin. He watched silently as Fíli wrapped a bandage over his green soul light and glanced back repeatedly as they left Rivendell, and hid his amusement and his happiness for his friend when Fíli’s soulmate saved him from falling off the mountainside.

The trouble in Moria tossed all thought of soulmates out of Ori’s head, though. He vaguely registered that the young man they had found in the mines had a green soul light after touching Kíli where before it had been white, but the impending danger of the goblins threw most thoughts from the little scribe’s mind.

Then, when they reached Beorn’s house and he was cleaning up for the first time in a very long while, Ori noticed that his soul light was now green. And he had no idea who his soulmate was.

 

For as long as Dwalin could remember, the little unearthly light on the palm of his left hand had been a soft, neutral white. He had encountered many dwarves, men and elves in his life, and yet the light had stayed white no matter how many he made contact with. He wasn’t too fussed at first, but as he got older he started wondering.

Was his soulmate even born yet? Was he or she living too far away for them to meet? What if his soulmate rejected him?

Then he met little Ori. Ori was small, shy and yet full of unexpected fire. He wasn’t afraid of Dwalin like most young ones were at first, instead always offering a shy smile and a greeting when they came to be in each other’s presence. He was endearing, the way he kept mostly to himself and sketched or knitted skilfully – Dwalin had never been good at fiddly work, and the young scribe had impressively nimble fingers.

And suddenly, Dwalin found he didn’t want to find his soulmate. Not if his soulmate wasn’t the little scribe he was feeling so fondly for. Why should he try to find someone who would only accept him fully in theory? Why should he go looking for someone to accept him when he could possibly have that right here in the Company, with Ori?

It wasn’t unheard of for non-soulmates to bond, even though their soul lights never changed. When this quest was over, maybe he could set about courting the scribe. If Ori was open to the option, Dwalin would be more than happy to claim the little scribe as his own.

The mess of the situation in Moria left little time to think beyond survival, and it wasn’t until they were heading away from the Carrock that Dwalin realised something was different. He couldn’t place it at first, not since he had other things to worry about (Ori’s safety, his health, his friendship with the man who was Kíli’s soulmate) but when he took off his gauntlets to check their hinges, he realised that his soul light had – at some point – changed to green.

Dwalin’s mind was awhirl. Who had he touched that he had not beforehand? Oin’s light was still white, so it wasn’t him. Kíli and the young Man they’d somehow picked up were soulmates – plus Dwalin had touched Kíli’s bare hand before, and he hadn’t touched Laddyn – so who could it be? Surely not a goblin or orc?! The gods were not so cruel, were they?!

Dwalin forced himself to calm down, reminding himself that there were others in the party without bonds. He didn’t want to hope too much, but he had yet to see Ori’s soul light. Maybe, just maybe, the little scribe was his match. He just had to find a way to see it without being obvious.

 

Dwalin did not manage to find a way to see Ori’s soul light before they left Beorn’s home, nor before they were captured by giant spiders (and then elves. Although with Thalion to vouch for them, they were kept in better accommodations than they otherwise would have been). When they arrived in Laketown (after a trip down the river in barrels – something Dwalin would prefer to forget. Seriously, never mention it again) he had his chance to spend more time with Ori and hopefully find out if the younger dwarf was his soulmate.

Ori wanted his help in getting Laddyn to accept Kíli and hopefully bond. Ori had been doing a fine job of ignoring the Man – who obviously considered Ori family – and so Ori was going to speak with Laddyn privately and possibly make him realise what his behaviour was doing to Kíli. Laddyn went along with Ori immediately when the little scribe asked softly if they could talk, and Dwalin followed the two off to one of the rooms in the inn. The tattooed dwarf was reaching the end of his patience in regards to finding his soulmate, but before he accosted Ori in the hopes the little dwarf was his match, he would help the devious little scribe one more time. (Later, Dwalin would discover that it was actually Óin and Bifur’s plan which Ori had enacted.) Ori was a brilliant little scholar, and as Dwalin soon discovered, a brilliant actor as well.

“Laddyn, why do you keep hurting Kíli?” Ori asked the Man with big, soulful brown eyes staring up at him. Laddyn shifted uncomfortably, for Ori seemed close to tears.

“I don’t mean… I just…” Laddyn broke off with an irritable sigh.

“When you pushed him away he started getting depressed,” Ori continued insistently. “He doesn’t smile anymore. Why won’t you just accept the bond? Do you dislike him?”

“No! No, I do not dislike him, but…” Laddyn gave another sigh. “I have my reasons.”

“Your reasons are excuses!” Ori snapped. “If you don’t bond soon, or at least come to an agreement and accept that you are soulmates, Kíli is going to do something stupid and get himself killed!”

Laddyn was silent, but there was a look about him that Ori knew and recognised – despair.

“Kíli is in the room down the hall if ye wish to speak with him,” Dwalin rumbled, and Laddyn nodded slowly.

“I… I will talk with him. And apologise for… for everything.”

“As long as you do not hurt him further,” Ori warned with a scowl (which Dwalin thought to be completely unthreatening but adorable all the same). Laddyn nodded and left the room, Ori and Dwalin following. They watched him go into the room Bifur and Óin had led Kíli to earlier, and shut and locked the door behind the Man. Ori grinned triumphantly, and Dwalin chuckled at the scribe’s pride in himself. He gripped the younger dwarf by the elbow, and gently steered him away from the room.

“Oh, my glove!” Ori exclaimed, and Dwalin glanced down to see that a loose thread on one of the scholar’s gloves had been caught on the door of the room they had just locked, tugging it from the scribe’s hand. He also noticed that a faint green light was shining from between the little scholar’s clenched fingers – clenched fingers he gently forced to straighten so he could turn Ori’s hand palm-up.

Slowly, heart pounding like drums in his ears, Dwalin lowered his hand to brush his bare fingertips across the little green light.

The jolt which ran through both of them brought a gasp from Ori and a pleased smile to Dwalin’s face.

“Well, my little one, you have kept me waiting a very long time,” the warrior growled teasingly as he wound an arm around Ori’s waist. The younger dwarf was blushing, cheeks stained pink beneath his beard.

“I – I didn’t mean to,” the scholar stammered, and Dwalin chuckled as he guided his little soulmate towards the room he had been given for his stay in Laketown.

“Just as well.”

 

The next morning, Ori had to defend his newly-bonded soulmate from his older brothers in the middle of the inn, much to Dwalin’s amusement and Ori’s later embarrassment.

It might have taken a while, and a lot of patience on Dwalin’s part, but they had finally found each other and were happy to have done so.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so the next story will be tying up all the loose ends, and will be a multi-chapter fic.
> 
> And I told you Laddyn would get his head out of his ass eventually (even if Ori had to prompt him to it)


End file.
